Men sought, ambition’s thirst to slake,The lost elixir oldWhose magic touch should instant makeThe meaner metals gold. A nobler alchymy is thineWhich love from pain doth press:Gold in thy hand becomes divine,Grows truth and tenderness.

Dead, why defend thee, who in lifeFor thy worst foe hadst died;Who, thy own name a word of strife,Didst silent stand aside? Grand in forgiveness, what to theeThe big world’s puny prate!Or thy great heart hath ceased to beOr loveth still its mate!

To whom the heavy burden clings,It yet may serve him like a staff;One day the cross will break in wings,The sinner laugh a holy laugh. The dwarfed Zacchaeus climbed a tree,His humble stature set him high;The Lord the little man did seeWho sought the great man passing by. Up to the tree he came, and […]

I. Who follows Jesus shall not walkIn darksome road with danger rife;But in his heart the Truth will talk,And on his way will shine the Life. So, on the story we must poreOf him who lives for us, and died,That we may see him walk before,And know the Father in the guide. II. In words […]

O Peter, wherefore didst thou doubt?Indeed the spray flew fast about,But he was there whose walking footCould make the wandering hills take root;And he had said, “Come down to me,”Else hadst thou not set foot on sea!Christ did not call thee to thy grave!Was it the boat that made thee brave? “Easy for thee who […]

Thy world is made to fit thine own,A nursery for thy children small,The playground-footstool of thy throne,Thy solemn school-room, Father of all!When day is done, in twilight’s gloom,We pass into thy presence-room. Because from selfishness and wrath,Our cold and hot extremes of ill,We grope and stagger on the path–Thou tell’st us from thy holy hill,With […]

How shall he sing who hath no song?He laugh who hath no mirth?Will cannot wake the sleeping song!Yea, Love itself in vain may longTo sing with them that have a song,Or, mirthless, laugh with Mirth!He who would sing but hath no songMust speak the right, denounce the wrong,Must humbly front the indignant throng,Must yield his […]

A broken tale of endless things,Take, lady: thou art not of thoseWho in what vale a fountain springsWould have its journey close. Countless beginnings, fair first parts,Leap to the light, and shining flow;All broken things, or toys or hearts,Are mended where they go. Then down thy stream, with hope-filled sail,Float faithful fearless on, loved friend;‘Tis […]

Farewell, O Arm of the Lord!Man who hated the sword,Yet struck and spared not the thing abhorred!Farewell, O word of the Word!Man who knew no failureBut the failure of the Lord!

The silence of traitorous feet!The silence of close-pent rage!The roar, and the sudden heart-beat!And the shot through the true heart going,The truest heart of the age!And the Nile serenely flowing! Carnage and curses and cries!He utters never a word;Still as a child he lies;The wind of the desert is blowingAcross the dead man of the […]

JANUARY 26, 1885. Gordon, the self-refusing,Gordon, the lover of God,Gordon, the good part choosing,Welcome along the road! Thou knowest the man, O Father!To do thy will he ran;Men’s praises he did not gather:There is scarce such another man! Thy black sheep’s faithful shepherdWho knew not how to flee,Is torn by the desert leopard,And comes wounded […]

The veil hath lifted and hath fallen; and himWho next it stood before us, first so long,We see not; but between the cherubimThe light burns clearer: come–a thankful song! Lord, for thy prophet’s calm commanding voice,For his majestic innocence and truth,For his unswerving purity of choice,For all his tender wrath and plenteous ruth; For his […]

Dead art thou? No more dead than was the maidOver whose couch the saving God did stand–“She is not dead but sleepeth,” said,And took her by the hand! Thee knowledge never from Life’s pathway wiled,But following still where life’s great father led,He turned, and taking up his child,Raised thee too from the dead, O living, […]

Lady Caroline Charteris The mountain-stream may humbly boastFor her the loud waves call;The hamlet feeds the nation’s host,The home-farm feeds the hall; And unto earth heaven’s Lord doth lendThe right, of high import,The gladsome privilege to sendNew courtiers to Love’s court. Not strange to thee, O lady dear,Life in that palace fair,For thou while waiting […]

The sun is sinking in the west,Long grow the shadows dim;Have patience, sister, to be blest,Wait patiently for Him. Thou knowest love, much love hast had,Great things of love mayst tell,Ought’st never to be very sadFor thou too hast lov’d well. His house thou know’st, who on the brinkOf death loved more than thou,Loved more […]

I. If thou hadst been a sculptor, what a raceOf forms divine had thenceforth filled the land!Methinks I see thee, glorious workman, stand,Striking a marble window through blind space–Thy face’s reflex on the coming face,As dawns the stone to statue ‘neath thy hand–Body obedient to its soul’s command,Which is thy thought, informing it with grace!So […]

“I do beseech thee, God, show me thy face.”“Come up to me in Sinai on the morn!Thou shall behold as much as may be borne.”And on a rock stood Moses, lone in space.From Sinai’s top, the vaporous, thunderous place,God passed in cloud, an earthy garment wornTo hide, and thus reveal. In love, not scorn,He put […]

Thrice-happy he whose heart, each new-born night,When old-worn day hath vanished o’er earth’s brim,And he hath laid him down in chamber dim,Straightway begins to tremble and grow bright,And loose faint flashes toward the vaulted heightOf the great peace that overshadoweth him:Keen lambent flames of hope awake and swimThroughout his soul, touching each point with light!The […]

She knelt, she bore a bold request,Though shy to speak it out:Ambition, even in mother’s breast,Before him stood in doubt. “What is it?” “Grant thy promise now,My sons on thy right handAnd on thy left shall sit when thouArt king, Lord, in the land.” “Ye know not what ye ask.” There layA baptism and a […]

Filled with his words of truth and right,Her heart will break or cry:A woman’s cry bursts forth in mightOf loving agony. “Blessed the womb, thee, Lord, that bare!The bosom that thee fed!”A moment’s silence filled the air,All heard the words she said. He turns his face: he knows the cry,The fountain whence it springs–A woman’s […]